Immigration officers on full duty with expected influx of travelers during Lenten break
THE IMMIGRATION bureau is anticipating an influx of arriving and departing passengers starting this weekend as the Philippines observes the Lenten holiday, the first in two years with eased travel restrictions due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
As such, immigration officers assigned at international airports across the country have been prohibited from going on leave during and after the Holy Week to ensure sufficient manpower to serve the traveling public during the break, according to the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
“Normally there is always a rise in the volume of arriving passengers before the Holy Week and increase in the number of departing passengers after the Lenten break,” BI Port Operations Divisions Carlos B. Capulong said in a statement on Thursday.
Mr. Capulong noted that apart from Filipinos who will be traveling abroad or coming home, the country has also opened its borders to vaccinated foreign tourists from all countries.
Data from the bureau show that passenger arrivals at the airport has been averaging at 13,000 to 15,000 daily in April, up from 6,000 to 9,000 in March.
The Department of Tourism (DoT) reported on Tuesday that more than 186,000 foreign tourists have arrived since border reopening on Feb. 10 for non-visa countries, and for all countries effective April 1.
The tourism sector’s contribution to the country’s economy in 2019 was 12.8%. This dropped to 5.4% the following year due to the global pandemic.
DoT said that over a million workers in the tourism industry were affected by the pandemic. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
